This invention relates to postage meters. More particularly, it relates to a method and apparatus for analyzing the usage of postage meters with respect to the history of meter recharges, for the purpose of detecting fraudulent or improper usage.
Postage meters are devices for printing indicia representative of selected amounts of postage on mail pieces. Such meters account for the total postage printed and will not print indicia if that total exceeds a predetermined amount. Typically, from time to time a postage meter is taken to a post office and there, upon payment to the postal service, the meter is "recharged" (sometimes hereinafter "refilled") so that the user can continue printing postal indicia. Alternatively, the meter may be recharged remotely at the user's location over the telephone network by use of a service such as that marketed by the assignee of the subject application under the trademark "Postage-by-Phone". Thus, it can be seen that, in essence, a postage meter is a device for printing postage stamps; constructed in a manner to assure that all the "stamps" used are paid for. Thus, postage meters are designed and constructed so that each postage amount printed is accounted for, and so that the meter can only be recharged upon proper payment. A postage meter is also designed and constructed so that any attempts to defeat the safeguards designed into the meter are easily detected.
One method to overcome the safeguards incorporated in postage meters is to produce counterfeit indicia. To prevent this postage meter indicia are design in an arbitrary and fanciful manner so that they are not easily duplicated and may include "tells", small variations in the design of the indicia from meter to meter, to help a skilled inspector to detect counterfeit indicia. However, when we consider that postage meter indicia, on average, represent relatively low dollar values and that postage meters for printing indicia are located at hundreds of thousands of locations, and the continuing inability of the government to prevent counterfeiting of currency, which has a much greater value then the average postage meter indicia and is much more carefully produced, it is clear that these techniques cannot provide complete assurance against the production of counterfeit postage meter indicia.
Presently the only other methods available to detect the use of counterfeit postage meter indicia is to inspect the mailstream, determine the cumulative total of postage preportedly printed by a given postage meter, and compare this to the recharge history of that meter; or to check the serial number printed in all meter indicia. Currently these methods can only be done manually and are thus difficult and expensive and are rarely, if ever, done. (In the United States mailers are required to post metered mail at a Post Office specifically designated for each postage meter. Thus, an incorrect serial number may indicate a counterfeit indicia.)
Thus, it is an object of the subject invention to provide a method and apparatus for efficient and low cost comparison of the total postage expended by a particular postage meter with the recharge history of that meter.